I really enjoyed participating in the official unveiling of the new mural located in an empty lot next to the Quaker House Building on 65 9th Street (between Market and Mission Streets). The importance of this mural is not only relevant for its artistic and cultural content, but it is also because of the message that its images proclaim. These images are vivid and impacting, as they are a vehicle to denounce the hardship many immigrants have to go through to get to the U.S. This project was created by the talented muralist PanchoPescador in collaboration with with the Community Rejuvenation Project, and a group of students called “67 Sueños”, some of them undocumented. From where it was inspired, as the mural shows, are images of the many battles immigrants fight and there is also a message that is loud and clear: “No human being is illegal”.

I organized a group of transgender Latina women with the intention of giving visibility to our community, as I feel we also have experienced the same hardships and battles as many immigrants have and some of these students as well. The unveiling ceremony provided some food, and the sale of some T-shirts with the logo of “67 Sueños”, and the presentation of a shocking video made by some of these students narrating their situation as undocumented students in the U.S.

The Mural has on the top left the powerful phrase “No human being is illegal”; and it has images of some cultural ancestors, a jaguar looking toward an Olmec head stone and a colorful hummingbird, flying over a corn field, all these, symbols of indigenous origin. Next to these symbolic characters, one can see two men, apparently two immigrants crossing the border through some fields, and right above them, it reads, “Are pushed out of High School”, and above the other man, it reads, “The media ignore us”. I applaud these statements, as it denounces some the injustice committed against immigrants. Interestingly, there is also an indigenous looking character holding a blow horn that has some kind of writing in an ancient language, giving light to the voices of many, and also to be interpreted as one of the many barriers many immigrants face when they arrive here, the difference in language.

What impacted me most about this mural is the series of images on the right side, they tell many stories of many immigrants that crossed the border undocumented. There's a little girl sitting down on a field with her toy doll on a field with many wooden crosses with names on them, a serpent dragon above her, a pair of boots with what seems to be a “green card” next to them. Apparently, this little girl has been left abandoned in the desert and she's very scared. These images tell exactly what happens to many when crossing the border undocumented, not all of them make it to “El Norte”, not only adults cross the border undocumented, there are children, men, and women. Also, in a corner, with their backs, there's an ICE officer putting the handcuffs on an immigrant, one of the realities immigrants will confront while trying to cross the border without documentation.

This mural is to me one of the must beautiful I have seen so far in the city, but it is the message it sends that makes it an important work: the condemnation it makes against racism and injustice, which are part of this capitalist system we live in. As long as there is no immigration reform, many more undocumented immigrants will come and discover that “The American Dream” is not for all. I hope the impact of this mural is to create awareness that our people will keep on fighting for our right to stay on these lands that belonged to our ancestors. That all of us, documented or undocumented , are all created equal.